Ottoman Sufism, Orientalism, and German Politics, 1770-1825 a Dissertatio
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Changing States: Ottoman Sufism, Orientalism, and German Politics, 1770-1825 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Lela Jaise Gibson 2015 © Copyright by Lela Jaise Gibson 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Changing States: Ottoman Sufism, Orientalism, and German Politics, 1770-1825 by Lela Jaise Gibson Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor David Sabean, Chair This dissertation shows how German diplomats imported texts related to tasawwuf (Sufism) from the Ottoman Empire, translated them into German, and published them to advocate for competing political visions following the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Specifically, it traces the life of Heinrich von Diez (1751-1817), an Enlightenment thinker who served as the Prussian chargé d’affaires in Istanbul from 1784-90, where he learned Ottoman, collected manuscripts, and established contact with a Sufi lodge. After returning to Prussia, he translated and published several Ottoman manuscripts to articulate his support for an absolutist revival. Habsburg diplomats in Istanbul, such as Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856), Valentin von Huszár (1788-1850), and Vincenz von Rosenzweig-Schwannau (1791-1865), similarly established contact with Sufi lodges, imported manuscripts, and translated them into German to advocate for a competing vision of the future rooted in nationalism and romantic poetry. Johann ii Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) drew upon the work of these diplomat-orientalists to write the West-östlicher Divan (1819), a collection poems inspired by Sufi literature. Theologian and orientalist August Tholuck (1799-1877) also built upon the work of these authors to advance his approach to evangelical theology. This dissertation shows how these thinkers appropriated Sufi texts to formulate and articulate their political visions for the future of the German-speaking world at the beginning of the modern era, locating discussions about nationalism, literature, and philosophy within a larger context of exchange between Europe and the Islamic world. iii The dissertation of Lela Jaise Gibson is approved. Nile Spencer Green Lynn A. Hunt Gabriel Piterberg Saree Makdisi David Sabean, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Curriculum Vita ............................................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Heinrich Diez and the German Enlightenment ........................................................... 13 Chapter 2: Sufism and European Diplomacy in Istanbul .............................................................. 47 Chapter 3: Ottoman Sufism and Prussian Conservatism .............................................................. 72 Chapter 4: Romantic Nationalism and Sufi Poetry in Vienna ...................................................... 96 Chapter 5: Dueling Futures, Dueling Orientalisms ..................................................................... 122 Chapter 6: Sufism and Orientalism in Weimar ........................................................................... 146 Chapter 7: Sufism and Evangelical Christianity ......................................................................... 161 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 171 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 175 v Acknowledgements It has been a privilege to work with an outstanding group of scholars at UCLA. Thank you to David Sabean, Lynn Hunt, Nile Green, Gabriel Piterberg, and Saree Makdisi for their insightful advice and commitment to this project. Thank you also to Peter Park, Kris Pangburn, Baki Tezcan, and Fariba Zarinebaf for their helpful comments. It has been a pleasure to be part of an international group of young scholars documenting the history of Ottoman-European exchange: to Irena Fliter, Pascal Firges, Emrah Safa Gürkan, Emily Neumeier, Will Smiley, and Michael Talbot, thank you. Much appreciation also to my teachers of Ottoman Turkish: Hasan Aksoy, Mehmet Taha Ayar, Güliz Kuruoğlu, and Sevim Yılmaz Önder. Warm thanks to the many others who provided comments, insight and support for this project. The idea for this dissertation began many years ago and developed in the course of my undergraduate and graduate studies. Thank you to Stephen Brockmann and Kiron Skinner at Carnegie Mellon University for providing the necessary foundation in German literature and international politics. Several scholars at Georgetown University read and commented on early versions of this project: thank you to Bassam Haddad, Katrin Sieg, Faruk Tabak, and John Voll. Of course, any errors in the text are the responsbility of the author alone. Thank you also to the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies, and UCLA Department of History for providing grants for archival research. Finally, thank you to my parents John and Carole Gibson for their love and support. vi Curriculum Vita Lela Gibson Education Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles M.A., History, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles, 2010 M.A., German and European Studies, Georgetown University, 2007 B.A., German and International Relations, Carnegie Mellon University, 2005 Publications “Diplomats and Ottoman-European Intellectual Exchange: Heinrich von Diez and Ali Aziz Efendi, 1797” Journal of Ottoman Studies (forthcoming, 2016) “Turkish-German Studies and the Ottoman Empire.” In Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Ela Gezen and Berna Gueneli (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, forthcoming 2015). Book Review of John-Paul Ghobrial, The Whispers of Cities: Information Flows in Istanbul, London and Paris in the Age of William Trumbull (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), The Historian, (forthcoming) “A European Jewish Feminist Decries the White Slave Trade in the Ottoman Empire.” In Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950, edited by Julia Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein (Stanford University Press, 2014), 226-231. (Translation) “The Ottoman Empire, Islam and the Emergence of German National Identity, 1789-1815.” In Religion, Identity and Politics: Germany and Turkey in Interaction, edited by Haldun Gülalp and Günter Seufert (New York: Routledge, 2013), 9-18. Grants Henry J. Bruman Endowed Chair/Department of History Dissertation Fellowship, Summer and Fall 2015 Henry J. Bruman Endowed Chair/Department of History Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2014-15 Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA Graduate Division, 2013-14 Summer Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies, 2013 Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant, UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies, Summer 2012 Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant, UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies, 2011-12 Graduate Research Mentorship, UCLA Graduate Division, 2010-11 Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant, UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, Summer 2010 DAAD German Studies Research Grant, 2010 Berkeley-Vienna Fund Research Grant, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, 2010 Selected Presentations vii “The Galata Mevlevihanesi: Ottoman Sufism and the European Enlightenment,” Ottoman Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015 “Turkish-German Studies and the Ottoman Empire,” German Studies Association, Kansas City, 2014 “Diplomats as Philosophers: Heinrich von Diez and Ali Aziz Efendi, 1797,” Contacts, Encounters, Practices: European-Ottoman Diplomacy Roundtable, 1500-1800, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom, June 2014 “Towards Global Intellectual History: Ottoman Elites and the German Enlightenment, 1773- 1817,” German Studies Association, Denver, 2013 “Ottoman Diplomats in Habsburg and Prussian Enlightenment Society, 1791-98,” Middle East Studies Association, New Orleans, 2013 “Ottoman Sufism and the Prussian Enlightenment: Heinrich von Diez, 1751–1817,” Moralism, Fundamentalism, and the Rhetoric of Decline in Eurasia, 1600-1900, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, 2013 “An Ottoman Diplomat in Berlin: Ahmed Azmi Efendi, 1791-92,” German Studies Association, Louisville, 2011 “Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange: Ebubekir Ratib Efendi’s Mission to Vienna, 1792, Ottoman-European Exchanges in Commerce, Finance, and Culture, Newnham College, Cambridge University, United Kingdom, 2011 “Dueling Orientalisms: Prussian and Habsburg Scholarship on the Near East, 1790-1819” German Studies Association, Oakland, 2010 Teaching University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Germanic Languages The Holocaust in Film and Literature, Teaching Fellow, 2015 History of German Philosophy, Teaching Fellow, 2012, 2014 University of California, Los Angeles, Department of History Western Civilization, 1715-present (online), Teaching Associate, 2013, 2014 World History to 600 AD, Teaching Associate, 2013 World History, 600-1750